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Sebastien Bourdais (27 posts)

Topic tags: Sebastien Bourdais

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Don said 1 year, 2 months ago:

Hat’s off to Seb for a great drive at St. Pete. He was in the top 10 until he had an electrical problem near the end of the race, placing 22nd. Also, he has the best looking livery on the grid IMHO.

Rubens, had a tough go of it ending up 17th. Sato, 24th. Justin Wilson 10th.

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Joel Holland said 1 year, 2 months ago:

Bourdais still has an IndyCar title in him given the right car, no doubt about it.

Interesting to hear the commentators describe him as having ‘four titles in indycars’ (lowercase and plural, so as to denote that it wasn’t this series). Not sure I’ve heard them do that before.

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raymondu999 said 1 year, 2 months ago:

They were at ChampCar IIRC. But isn’t this series the one that USED to be ChampCar? I don’t know the genealogy of the American racing series though. I could be wrong.

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f1alex said 1 year, 2 months ago:

I don’t know, I think Indycar is the series that was originally IRL, which was set up as a competitor to CART (later Champcar). In 2008 they merged to form the Indycar we have now, but I’d say that as he had his titles in Champcar they wouldn’t count as Indycar titles.

I might be completely wrong on this so if I am just tell me to shut up :) .

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Joel Holland said 1 year, 2 months ago:

Bourdais raced in Champ Car. The IRL – which is essentially the present IndyCar Series – was a breakaway from Champ Car (which was then called CART) that started in ’96. The two series ran in competition until 2008, when Champ Car fell apart and the IRL/IndyCar absorbed what was left of it.

The significance of it, to me, was that they’ve previously been a bit sniffy about acknowledging Bourdais’ Champ Car achievements, as if they didn’t exist because they happened in the rival series. So it was cool to hear him called a four-time champion, which he is. They don’t count as IndyCar titles, but they’re indycar (as in American open-wheel) titles. It’s all very messy, just good that there’s one series now.

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Adam Tate said 1 year, 2 months ago:

It is messy, but I think it was the commentators way of trying to smooth out the rough past of American Open-Wheel racing. To call them Indycar titles is a good thing, the series needs to look at itself as the one and only top level open wheel series in the states. It was once divided, and by doing things like giving credit to Bourdais, where it is most certainly due, is one way to promote this new unity and move forward.

And yes, Bourdais drove a cracking race, hopefully Lotus will work doubletime on engine development so he can keep pestering the front runners. Some one of Bourdais talent deserves a top car.

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Don said 1 year, 2 months ago:

SpeedTV’s website raves about Seb’s driving during the race. Too bad he couldn’t have finished the race and been rewarded for his hard work.

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BasCB said 1 year, 2 months ago:

I saw that raving report as well @don123, it was a nice read as it shows some details on how and where that speed was built up.

Seems the Lotus engine lacks in top end power, but is pretty solid in the low-end range.

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Don said 1 year, 2 months ago:

This covers Seb’s brilliance at St.Pete. http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/indycar-bourdais-street-fighter-sector-times/

Good luck in Birmingham.

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Joel Holland said 1 year, 2 months ago:

Awesome, thanks for sharing that Don. Good to see Bourdais get the respect he deserves.

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joac21 said 1 year, 2 months ago:

Wish someone would make this kind of analysis for F1

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Don said 1 year, 2 months ago:

Lots of interesting stuff at http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/indy-car/

Beyond comprehension how Seb didn’t end up with a big team, and amazing how well he did in the Dragon-Lotus car.

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Joel Holland said 1 year, 2 months ago:

I think he was under consideration for Newman-Haas before that closed shop – I’m sure there’s still a lot of love for him there and they were always likely to need to replace Hinch. Also he thought he had a full WEC programme with Peugeot to keep him busy, then that closed its doors. So I think circumstance played a part.

But he’s not got a bad deal at Dragon: he’s not had to bring a penny to that programme, the money has all been raised by the team and Lotus, who wanted a few kickass drivers for their programme (Servia being the other). So he’s effectively the ‘lead’ Lotus driver, and if they get their act together he’ll be the man to lead the charge. Could be worse.

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Joey-Poey said 1 year, 2 months ago:

For those wondering why he’s not with a big team, if you look at his results from last year, his were less than impressive. There might still be some talent there, but he’s kinda got a show it all over again.

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Don said 1 year, 2 months ago:

Joey, I think his results last year were poor because he was with such a small team. How he performed at St.Pete was truly remarkable. It will be interesting to see how he progresses. It will be even more interesting to me to see if Lotus can make it through the season (because of financial issues).

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